THE shocking truth about Labour's open-door immigration policy was exposed yesterday with revelations that the influx from Europe for the last decade was underestimated by hundreds of thousands.

An analysis of data found that net immigration to the UK between 2001 and 2011 was 2.53 million people - 346,000 higher than the original estimate of 2.18 million.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that in 2006 the actual total of 265,000 was 67,000, or more than a third, higher than originally stated.

And in 2008, the actual figure of 229,000 was 40 per cent, or 66,000, higher than originally thought.

The findings came as shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper admitted that Labour "got things wrong on immigration", but attacked the current Government for its failures on immigration during a speech yesterday.

Last night, Conservative MP Stewart Jackson said: "These shocking official figures show the scale of Labour's disastrous immigration legacy and open door policy which this Government is having to grapple with.

"No amount of belated apologies in the run up to a general election from Yvette Cooper will fool the electorate into trusting Labour with our borders again."

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Labour was virtually the only government in Europe not to limit the rights-to-work of people from the "EU8" countries of Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia when they joined the European Union in 2004 and it vastly underestimated how many would come.

Yesterday the ONS blamed the discrepancy on "inadequate sampling design and coverage" of arrivals for "missing a substantial amount of immigration" of EU8 citizens between 2004 and 2008.

Until 2009 immigration interviews were being carried out largely at main airports such as London's Heathrow and Gatwick and Manchester when many migrants were landing at other airports thanks to the introduction cheaper routes from their countries.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK said: "This is final confirmation that net foreign migration under Labour totals nearly four million, two thirds from outside the EU.

"It also shows that the peak of net migration was nearly 275,000 a year, making it even more difficult for the present Government to get the numbers down to tens of thousands."